TWO MORE PLEAD GUILTY IN CHURCH BURGLARIES

Orange County Register (California)
August 1, 2013 Thursday

by: Doug Irving Register writer, The Orange County Register

Two members of a break-in crew that targeted churches and other
religious centers pleaded guilty this week to burglary charges.

Robert Lee Dennis, 45, and Fernando Flores, 21, were sentenced to
a year in jail and ordered to pay restitution, Orange County court
records show. A third man, Daniel Ruben Cortes, pleaded guilty last
month and was sentenced to two years in jail. A fourth man charged
as a co-defendant, James Allen Dorscht, has pleaded not guilty.

The break-ins began around the first of the year, hitting four churches
in Santa Ana, half a dozen more in Anaheim, an Islamic center and
a Hindu temple in Irvine. The burglars pried open donation boxes or
stole safes, police said.

Investigators got a break May 1 when thieves hit Forty Martyrs Armenian
Church in Santa Ana. Surveillance video captured two men prying open
a door and removing a safe while a third man stood as a lookout. The
safe held $15,000, most of it proceeds from a bingo game, police said.

At one point, one of the men noticed the video camera and tried to
disable it with a screwdriver. Instead, it captured an image of the
man that police distributed to the public. Phoned-in tips led police
to Cortes, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

About a week later, Irvine investigators identified Dennis as a suspect
in the temple burglary, based on DNA evidence. He and Flores were
arrested at a Santa Ana commercial complex. Police said they found
burglary tools, a club and a shotgun in their vehicle, as well as a
credit card with Dorscht’s name on it.

When another church was burglarized – this time, a Korean Catholic
church in Irvine, where a safe was dragged away – a partial fingerprint
led investigators to Dorscht, Irvine police Lt. Julia Engen said. He
was arrested in June; police said they found the stolen safe and cash
in an apartment he was using. His trial is set for September.

City News Service contributed to this report.